Entry #5

Dr. Jones,

I feel as if this class is going well so far. I am learning a lot about the power of digital technology and the influences it can have on students' writing. I am also forming a new understanding of the benefits of having students engage in a structured reading/writing workshop, and how journaling can be a therapeutic expression of ideas for students which helps them interact with their thoughts and responses to texts they read. I came to this realization during your sample presentation on the journal genre when we each worked independently with a book that was written in that particular genre. You gave us the option of completing either a reading log, double entry journal, or a simulated journal/diary entry in response to our reading. Responding to the specific questions that you provided helped break up the text and made me think about it in a new way, and because of this I ultimately got more out of it. Also, I feel as if the information in the text and the specific questions that I answered will stay with me much longer than if I had simply read the text and moved on. This activity showed me that having students interact with and respond to texts they read through writing will make the information more meaningful to them, and will actively engage them in constructing meaning for themselves through guided questioning.

The weekly blog posts and forum discussions have kept me fully engaged in an active and thoughtful process of writing. Every time I go to post on one of these sites I have to think about what I'm going to write, how I'm going to say it, go back and revise what I previously wrote, include sources as well as my own personal experiences and thoughts, and proof read for mistakes or confusion before publishing it. I choose to engage in this kind of writing because I believe all of these steps are necessary to produce a thoughtful, well-constructed piece of writing. If I were to just pour my thoughts out into a blog post about anything and everything then publish without going back to consider what I've written, it would be an incoherent mess and people would get too caught up on the poor mechanics or sentence structure to be able to focus on the actual content. As of right now, I don't think I really need to change any of my reading or writing habits because I believe I am fully engaged while writing. Perhaps taking a little more time to organize what I'm going to say, or create a short but structured outline of my thoughts would be helpful. Also, maybe searching outside of our course textbooks for ideas or inspiration would keep me even more engaged in my writing.

As I mentioned previously, the reading log, double entry journal, and simulation journal/diary entry responses really opened my eyes as to how writing can influence meaning and engage students in what they're reading. I will definitely work to include these as instructional activities in my classroom. Also, Scott and Vitale's "Writing Wheel" was concise and structured and would definitely benefit students during the writing process; it also provides students with a visual representation of the writing workshop and what they should be working on during different stages of the process. This is a strategy I could see myself using in the future.

The only thing that I'm struggling with in this class are the projects -- they just seem very daunting and a little overwhelming at this stage because I haven't really gotten into them yet. I'm sure that once I start really working on them and putting 100% of my focus on them, I'll find that they're very manageable.

Entry #2

• Given the three elements of the framework Hicks (2009) notes in Chapter 7 -- your students, the subject of writing, and the spaces in which we write -- how would you describe these elements as they are currently present in your classroom and school? What did you already have in place to begin your digital writing workshop? What else did you need to develop in order to make your digital writing workshop successful?

Throughout Chapter 7, Hicks (2009) frequently mentions the fact that it is important for students to understand the audience and purpose for which they are writing (p. 127). Digital technology makes it possible for students to consider and work with an audience outside of the classroom, and to explore different subjects or perspectives based on who their audience is going to be. Similarly, the internet and digital technology makes it much easier for students to broaden their scope of reference, easily find new information or opinions to discuss in writing pieces, collaborate with others, and share their message with a broad spectrum of people. In my opinion, Google Docs is an essential digital tool that should be utilized in every curriculum. I had the opportunity while student teaching to experiment with Google Docs and found that it can easily encompass all three elements of Hicks' framework -- especially improving on the spaces in which we write. Using Google Docs, students had the opportunity to digitally collaborate with one another, going through the processes of peer-review, editing, revising, drafting, and publishing. It was a bit of a process getting started, because each student needed to create their own Google profile which can become confusing in a class of 20 or so students.  However, once everyone was familiar with the site and how it worked, they became quickly proficient in applying the writing process to cyber-space. It also eliminated the necessity of creating a physical learning space for students to collaborate because they could each do so from their own computer, no matter where they were in the room.

I was also able to implement Hicks' subject of writing through the use of digital technology. Most 21st century students are so experienced and literate when it comes to digital technology, using this sort of technology in the classroom is exciting and familiar to them. With tools such as blogs and wikis, I have seen students become more intrinsically motivated to accomplish writing tasks because they view the subject of writing differently; this element of intrigue is also due to the fact that students are now able to produce something that can be shared with the world -- not just with their peers and teachers. Publishing their work on blogs or wikis gives them a new sense of purpose, so they have more motivation to complete it. One of the most frequently asked questions that I got from my students was: "Why do we have to do this?" ("why do we have to write this essay?", "why do we have to write this poem?" etc., etc.). When I found a way to implement digital technologies into the writing process, the students were excited to work on their blogs because they could put so much more creativity and "features" into their writing (such as hyperlinks, pictures, video/audio clips, etc.) -- Of course I knew that the students were still engaging in the same writing process, but the students were so preoccupied with making their blog the best that it could be, that they didn't even realize how much writing they were actually doing.